The Tao of the Ed-Fi Alliance

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This is a living document authored by the Ed-Fi Alliance's technology st=
aff. It owes a conceptual debt to The Tao of IETF, which serves=
a similar purpose for a different, complex standards organiza=
tion.

Introduction

The Ed-Fi Alliance was initially led by a small internal team, a co=
mmunity consisting of a few state education agencies, and supported by a si=
ngle, contracted technology vendor. In the years since, the internal team h=
as grown, the community has expanded far beyond its initial group of state =
education agencies, the technology is supported by multiple vendors, and th=
e community is developing open source solutions that are distributed by the=
Ed-Fi Alliance.

This rapid expansion is a classic good problem to have. However, the bre=
adth of Ed-Fi Alliance activities can be a bit daunting for newcomers =
or even current supporters who are looking to broaden their involvement in =
the Ed-Fi Alliance and its various technologies. This document describes th=
e many aspects of the Ed-Fi Alliance, and is intended to provide newcomers =
and current supporters with the information they need to know to participat=
e effectively and enjoyably in various activities.

What is the Ed-=
Fi Alliance?

The mission of the Ed-Fi Alliance is to empower a community of educators=
and innovators with real-time, comprehensive data from any technology tool=
, supporting every learner's success. You can read more about the Alliance'=
s mission and vision here.

In service of that goal, the Alliance and its community supports the fol=
lowing, widely varied activities:

Governance of the Ed-Fi Data Standard

Development of the Ed-Fi Implementation Suite software, which is aligne=
d to the Ed-Fi Data Standard

Publication of free, open source software aligned to the Ed-Fi Data Sta=
ndard in the Ed-Fi Exchange

Development and hosting of software tools that support adoption and use=
of the Ed-Fi Data Standard

Convening and coordinating the Ed-Fi Community through an Ed-Fi Summit =
meeting and various other contexts, including in-person and on=
line

The sections that follow detail the whys and wherefores.

History

The Ed-Fi Alliance, LLC, was formed on July 16, 2012, with its launch&nb=
sp;announced in March 2013. At the time, its technology co=
nsisted of a draft XML data standard and a dashboard starter kit developed =
by the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation for the Texas Student Data Syste=
m, an initiative of the Texas Education Agency. At that time, only a few&nb=
sp;organizations had licensed the data standard and/or the dashboard techno=
logy from the Foundation.

As of 2017, the Alliance has over 275 licensees. The technology directly supported by the=
Ed-Fi Alliance includes a relational ODS with a RESTful API, a more p=
olished and performant Dashboard starter kit, a high-performance =
ETL Application to populate the Dashboards from an ODS, and several support=
ing tools, including an online Ed-Fi Validation Tool and a hos=
ted data mapping application.

Future

The suite of technology and supporting tools will continue to expan=
d. We'll need help from the community as we grow, which is why we're publis=
hing these guidelines.

The next section in the Tao is Organization & Events, which, together, form the e=
ngine for getting work done.